How do you meditate? I found it easier outdoors.
Many people around me say they cannot meditate.
When they close their eyes,
various thoughts, or distractions, pop into their heads,
and they find they can't even calm down, let alone focus.
For those people who
cannot meditate well,
or for beginners to meditation,
I would like to talk about my own way of meditating.
What is the purpose of meditation?
In your daily life,
are you not constantly thinking about
work, family, plans with friends,
information on your smartphone,
the desire for delicious food or going out to have fun,
or frustrations and worries?
This is a time to
distance yourself a little from the things that usually fill your head,
and set your mind and heart free.
You might think,
"So what changes because of that?"
By freeing your mind and heart, you create space,
making it harder to get irritated,
and less likely to be swayed by small things.
And,
once meditation becomes a habit,
your daily life itself will gradually become easier.
Then, the cycle of meditation and your daily life
will become pleasant.
I believe that is
one of the purposes of practicing meditation.
So, how should you meditate?
To meditate,
you need to shift the direction of your consciousness
away from the state of constantly thinking.
For some people,
just closing their eyes actually increases their thoughts.
To prevent that, you should direct your consciousness
toward things other than what you usually think about.
1) Gymnastics/Stretching
First, loosen up your body with gymnastics or stretching.
Radio calisthenics are fine,
or just stretching your limbs is also okay.
When you loosen your body and relax,
your mind also becomes easier to calm down.
And it becomes easier to control your consciousness.
2) Check how easily you can enter a meditative state
First, try closing your eyes in your room.
For those who cannot stop thinking.
For those who find their thoughts actually increase.
You might find it difficult to
enter a meditative state.
In that case, please try it outdoors.
On the other hand, for those whose
thoughts quiet down when they close their eyes,
you are already in a state where it is easy to enter meditation.
You might be able to enter meditation smoothly
outdoors as well.
3) Meditation outdoors
Parks with nature, rivers, or mountains are recommended.
A place with clean air and quiet is ideal, but
a relatively quiet park in your neighborhood is also sufficient.
However,
you should avoid places like roadsides where cars pass by constantly.
After stretching or doing gymnastics,
sit down in a comfortable position.
Then, listen carefully to the sounds around you.
A small bird flying from right to left.
The wind hitting your skin.
The sound of leaves rustling.
A distant railroad crossing.
The voices of children.
Gently direct your consciousness
as if you are following the sounds.
Let's wait for 3 minutes.
Has your consciousness started to drift away
from your usual thoughts and distractions?
The longer you spend listening to the surrounding sounds,
the quieter your mind will gradually become.
You might think,
"I can't endure it for that long."
That is precisely why I recommend a place where the air is clean
and where just being there feels good.
"I want to stay here forever."
If it is a place where you feel that way, you will naturally be able to continue for a long time.
Once your mind is detached from distractions
and you can naturally focus
on the surrounding sounds,
next, let's try creating a quiet landscape in your mind.
First, use the surrounding sounds as a clue to imagine that place.
It doesn't have to be perfect. You can create it yourself.
It does not need to be perfect.
Conversely, during meditation, you can turn the suburban mountains into
the wonderful scenery of Kamikochi.
You can even create a lake.
In that scenery,
imagine yourself spending time in a relaxed way.
By creating an image in this way,
distracting thoughts will become even harder to enter.
And, meditation will become stable and pleasant.
4) Toward even deeper meditation
And, if you want to deepen it further,
there is also a method of introducing someone into that landscape and having a conversation.
It can be someone you respect,
or a fictional character.
In the quiet scenery,
try talking slowly.
However,
creating images is
a bit difficult, so
it is natural if you cannot do it.
Please just think that
you might be able to do it
if you repeat it many times.
And, dialogue with people is
even more difficult.
I thought that
it might be better not to write it
for beginners.
But, as a possibility of meditation,
I wanted to write it down.
Regarding deeper meditation beyond this,
I would like to talk about it in another article.
Next time,
I would like to talk about
meditation in a room.
(To be continued)
This note is
a record exploring "consciousness," "body," and "what lies beyond."
No conclusion has been reached yet.
That is why I keep writing.
I would be happy if you could follow me.
If you feel something, it would be encouraging if you could press the like button.
▶ Meditation Series
▶ Hemi-Sync ○ Years Series
I am recording the changes in consciousness and experiences that occurred during long-term practice.
I have summarized my experiences with Focus 10, 12, 15, 21, 22, and 27 into articles one by one.
The next story is here ↓
Guide to this series ↓
▶ Suddenly felt during a trip (Episode 1)
▶ I published my first Kindle book.
I am using the pen name Kiyohiro Ogasawara.
You can read it on Kindle Unlimited.
Also, I would be very happy if you could leave a comment.
▶ First Kindle book publication series (Episode 1)
▶ Self-introduction
▶ Summary of my life so far
An article summarizing the flow of my life up to this point. Everything starts here.
▶ AI series (only one episode so far)